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Subject: Where Available, School Choice Is Embraced by Few; Popular Topic of Political
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 92 04:30:31 EST
Message-ID: <52.1992Oct26.043031@AmeriCast.com>

Where Available, School Choice Is Embraced by Few; Popular Topic
of Political Debate Has Failed to Stir Enthusiasm Among Majority
of Parents<By Mary Jordan<Washington Post Staff Writer<

School "choice," the cornerstone of President Bush's education
reform plan, has been embraced by less than 2 percent of parents
in the 13 states in which it is now available, according to a
study released today.

The study by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of
Teaching, the most comprehensive review to date on school choice,
found that 70 percent of parents with children in public schools
across the nation said they would not want to send their child to
a different school.

Bush repeatedly has said that giving parents vouchers that would
allow them to select from among public and private schools would
improve all schools. Democratic nominee Bill Clinton supports al-
lowing parents to choose among public schools, but opposes
government financing of private or religious schools. Unlike
Bush, Clinton does not see "choice" as the key engine driving
school reform.

Although there has been little empirical data on the effective-
ness of choice, it has emerged this election year as the hottest
topic in education reform. Next week in Colorado, voters are to
decide whether to make their state the first in the nation to
give parents public funds - $2,500 - for the private or religious
school of their choice. In recent months, school superintendents
in New York and the District also have proposed implementing pub-
lic school choice plans.

"Clearly a myth has grown up around choice," Ernest L. Boyer,
president of the Carnegie Foundation and the former U.S. commis-
sioner of education. "It's a diversion to present choice as a
panacea - some grand design that can miraculously sweep away all
the difficulties that impede schools and restrict learning."

The study by the Princeton-based policy center also found that
statewide choice programs tend to widen the gap between rich and
poor districts, are expensive, and that at, best, their educa-
tional impact is ambiguous. None of the 13 states with some type
of school choice program has demonstrated significant gains that
can be attributed to the new option.

Some of the Carnegie survey results are in contrast to other re-
cent polls that have showed a majority of Americans favor a
voucher system in which government dollars could pay for private
school tuition.

Several pollsters say that because Americans intrinsically like
the idea of having a choice, the phrasing of the survey questions
on this topic can lead to wildly varying results. The Carnegie
poll, for instance, phrased the question on private school
choice: "Some people think that parents should be given a voucher
which they could use to enroll their child at a private school at
public expense. Do you support or oppose this idea?"

The result: 62 percent opposed and 32 percent in favor.

Education Secretary Lamar Alexander, the lead administration ad-
vocate of choice, issued a written response to the new survey,
saying its finding that 28 percent of parents would like to send
their child to some other public or private school was "astonish-
ing." Seventy percent said that they would not want to enroll
their child in a different school and 2 percent were undecided.

"More astonishing is Carnegie's view that this is only mild sup-
port for giving these families more choices of schools," Alex-
ander said. "Would the Berlin Wall still be a good idea if only
28 percent of East Germans wanted out?"

Boyer said that for millions of families, especially those less
well-educated and well-off, choice is a "wholly unrealistic pro-
posal. . . . For many, there is simply no other school within
easy reach, or if there is, the alternative school may be no
better than the one close by."

The cost and hassles of transporting children to schools outside
their neighborhoods are key obstacles to "choice" programs, the
report found. Half of the more than 1,000 public school parents
surveyed send their children to a school within two miles of
their home; three-quarters of the children attended a school
within five miles.

Richard Rothstein, research associate at the Economic Policy In-
stitute, a Washington think tank that recently held a choice sym-
posium, said he believes that "choice will have little or no" im-
pact on improving schools. New studies show that it is not the
remedy agent many had believed, he said, adding that he was not
surprised so few parents are using choice programs.

Rothstein said people like their neighborhood schools, "contrary
to the conventional wisdom about people dissatisfied with school
and in favor of choice."

So far only seven of the 13 states that have approved choice pro-
grams have extensive plans, including Minnesota, Massachusetts,
Arkansas and Nebraska. Because many of the programs are new, the
report conceded that the low participation rate might not accu-
rately reflect the depth of interest. But it noted that even in
Minnesota's program, which dates  to 1987, only 1.8 percent, or
13,000 students, opted to leave their neighborhood schools.

In Milwaukee, the nation's test case for a private-school choice
plan, only about 600 of the 97,000 public school students have
switched to private schools.<02:44 10-26C9999-----

Copyright 1992, The Washington Post.  This story is from the
Washington Post's Capitol Edition On-Line and is not to be ar-
chived or redistributed.

For more information, send-email to American Cybercasting Cor-
poration (usa@AmeriCast.COM)